Mt Willard
Mount Willard (2,800 ft.) Crawford Notch, NH. 3.2 mi RT, 900-foot elevation gain. RT hiking 2.3. hours. RT driving 3.0 hours.
Trailhead and parking area are located at the Crawford Depot on Rt. 302, in Carroll, NH (summit is in Bethlehem). The Crawford Depot is 8.5 miles south of Rt. 3 and just south of the AMC Highland Center. Click here for a Google map.
Although dwarfed by the high mountains all around it, Mt. Willard’s enormous south cliff makes seem an impressive peak to travelers on Rt. 302. Mt. Field rises 1500 feet above it to the east while Mt. Webster looms 1100 feet over it to the west. But Mt. Willard’s perfect position is what gives it such an incredible view. Its cliff-top summit yields a view looking straight through the southern part of Crawford Notch that the higher peaks can only see far below.
The trail starts at the Crawford Depot. Cross the railroad tracks behind the building and head out on the Avalon Trail. In 0.1 miles, turn left onto Mt. Willard Trail. It meanders easily through the woods and soon meets a stream. It gradually climbs upward while following the stream for 0.4 miles. It then passes a small waterfall with a pool below it, called Centennial Pool. You can walk down to the pool to see the waterfall. The trail then turns away from the stream and becomes steeper and rockier. It continues upward for 0.7 miles until the cliff top comes into view. The view from the ledge is stunning.
The notch stretches out far below you as a long half-cylinder bisected by Rt. 302 with the cliffs of Mt. Webster on the left side and the slopes of the Willey Range, crossed by the Conway Scenic Railroad, on the right side.
Our last trip up Mt. Willard was on January 19, 2024. Allen didn’t make that trip with us but commented in his preamble to Jeff’s hike report that, “I am sorry I was unable to join the group – Willard is a favorite hike and the views from the summit are outstanding!”
Then, as was his habit, he also included a bit of history of the area:
A Little Mount Willard History
“It has been 170 years since Thomas Crawford built the first carriage road from Crawford Notch to the summit of Mount Willard. The remnants of the old carriage road are still there and make up more than half of today’s hiking trail. The Mount Willard carriage road was built in 1845 by Thomas Crawford to make an excursion to the mountain easier for his guests. He ran the Notch House in Crawford Notch, an early guest house built by his brother Ethan Allen Crawford and his father Abel Crawford in 1827-28 below Elephant’s Head and in the shadow of Mount Willard and a number of other White Mountain peaks. When interviewed by the Among the Clouds newspaper Tom’s wife Mary said that in 1845 she was the first woman to ride in a carriage on her husband’s road to Willard’s summit. These day excursions for Notch House guests became very popular.
“According to George McAvoy’s And Then There Was One – a History of the Hotels on the Summit and the West Side of Mt. Washington, the Notch House continued to cater to mountain guests until fire destroyed it in 1854. Construction began on the Crawford House across Saco Lake from the Notch House in 1850. It burned down in 1859, was rebuilt and operated until 1975. Abandoned, it burned in 1977. The Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Center now stands on the spot where the Crawford House once stood.
“Crawford Notch was named for Abel Crawford, a well-known explorer, trail-builder and hosteller in the early 19th century. In addition to being early hostlers in Crawford Notch, Abel and Ethan also built the Crawford Path from the Notch to the summit of Mount Washington in 1819; it is considered the oldest continuously maintained footpath in the United States. In 1840 the Crawford Path was improved into a bridal path by Joseph S. Hall, an employee of Tom Crawford, making it possible to take a horse to Mount Washington.”
